A Tail of Two Brothers
by Davinorfa
Summary: Natsu stumbles across a boy his own age who is battered and beaten. Curious about his identity Natsu takes him to Igneel who raises them as brothers until he one day disappears. Main story is centred on the Dragons some canon story lines as well. OCxErza NatsuxLucy Rated M for themes and potential Lemons Disclaimer: I only own my own content not the rest
1. Chapter 1

One day while training with Igneel Natsu stumbles across a black haired boy around his own age. The two grow up together before joining the Fairy tail Guild.

A stronger and slightly smarter Natsu along with OC, story follows some of the Canon timeline with my own adventures written in, Also has a different major story line centred around the Dragons.

OCxErza and NatsuxLucy

Please R&R

I don't own any rights to Fairy tail story or characters, just the OC and some plot stuff.

Enjoy!

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Cold wind snapped at his uncovered legs as he gripped the small sheet tighter around his shoulders against the incoming snow storm. He heard the distant sound of alarms coming from the towering structure silhouetted black against the snow behind him. He gritted his teeth preparing to delve deeper into the whirling thicket of sleet and snow, his long black hair flowing backwards into the wind.

"Oro…" his whisper quickly lost to the air "...I'm coming"

Far to the south atop an indistinct foothill, Natsu Dragneel could be heard laughing heartily as he tumbled over small rocks and stones desperately leaping to avoid his Father's talons as they swept overhead.

"You'll have to do better than that ya big lizard!"

 **"Hpmh"** Igneel grunted to himself with a smirk as his long pointed talon flicked forward sending the boy flying, tumbling backwards over the edge of small cliff edge descending into the forest below.

 **"Please come back with some manners boy…"** Igneel sighed to himself as he lay down basking in the warm midday sun, a small smile spread across his face.

"Arghh!" Natsu's tumbled downwards bouncing off tree trunks and through various thickets until he landed with a thud. Sat in what had once been a river bed.

' _Stupid old lizard, that was cheating. When I get back up there.. Huh?'_

Natsu's train of thought was suddenly disrupted by a boy who looked to be of a similar age to himself. He had matted black hair running down to the small of his back, skin that was worryingly pale and gleaming with sweat. His clothes were torn and dirtied with mud and grime. He also had a tattered blanket loosely draped over his shoulders. Natsu could hear slight breaths otherwise he would have assumed the boy dead. He wasn't moving at all.

"Yo! Y-you okay?" Natsu slowly walked over to the boy and gave him a slight nudge with his foot. Getting no response Natsu leaned closer and gave the boy a sniff and a prod with his finger. The boy smelt funny, like snow and fire, trees and wildflowers and a bunch of stuff he didn't know names for.

"Huh. You know you smell weird? Where did you come from anyway?"

"...Oro" the soft rasping sound of the boy's voice took Natsu by surprise.

"Well you don't smell _bad_ so I guess it's ok to take you to Dad. Hold on if you can" Natsu bent over and lifted the boy over his shoulder, eliciting a small grunt of pain from the boy.

"Opps sorry about that. I'll try and be gentle." With that Natsu began the climb back up to Igneel. When he finally reached the clearing he heard Igneel snort

 **"What took you so long I didn't even hit you that hard"** Igneel turned and his eyes widened slightly seeing Natsu carrying a limp figure over his shoulder.

"I found someone, they don't look so good and he smells... really weird." Natsu gently placed the boy on his back in front of Igneel. Igneel leaned his head forward to inspect the boy.

 ** _Interesting...he does smell a bit odd, but I've smelt it be- It couldn't be. But I wonder…_**

 **"Natsu put him in the cave, we had best tend to his wounds"** Natsu nodded and picking the boy up again he gingerly walked over to the cave he had been calling home for as long as he could remember. Once he had him laying down Igneel's face came to the mouth of the cave.

"Step outside son I shall help him" Once Natsu had stepped outside Igneel breathed out gently and a soft golden flame enveloped the cave creating a shimmering curtain of fire around the prone figure. Nodding in slight satisfaction he turned to Natsu

"Where did you find him?"

"He was down by the old riverbed. I tried asking him who he was but all he managed to say was Oro before he passed out. You think that is his name?" Igneel's eyes widened even wider at this but the boy hadn't noticed as he was watching the golden fire.

"And what kind of fire was that? It smells different to normal?" Igneel chuckled to himself

" **They are flames that will heal his body. I will show you them once you have finished your training for the day."** Natsu groaned, he really wanted to stay and find out who the boy was but he knew there was no getting out of his training.

"Ok, Same as usual?" Igneel nodded and then smiled as Natsu darted towards the boulder field and the sounds of grunts quickly made their way over to the dragon. Igneel turned his gaze back to the boy.

 ** _Oro huh? Just who are you boy?_**

A week had passed since Natsu had found the lost figure, now awake he was resting his back against the wall of the cave and was hungrily devouring the food in front of him. Natsu grinned

"Hey you eat as much as me!" The boy barely nodded in response as he stuffed his face. He couldn't really remember the last time he had eaten cooked food. He had mostly survived on what plantlife he had managed to scavenge on his walk southwards. Waking up had been a shock. He had no recollection of the salmon haired boy or really much of the last few days. But what had really surprised him was seeing Igneel. He was still warily eyeing the dragon out of the corner of his eye as he gulped down the roasted meat. He was certainly glad they had saved him, and had too many questions for the dragon to count. But he wasn't sure if he could trust them. They seemed nice enough he reasoned but there was no way he was going to go back there. Never there, never again. He could only hope they wouldn't make him go back.

"Where are you from?" Natsu cheerfully asked, not seeing the quick flicker of fear in the boys eyes"

"I...erm...I dunno?"

"Hey I've been wanting to ask you, when I found you all you could say is Oro. That your name or something?" At that the boy's head shot up, genuine worry plastered across his face. Natsu blinked seeing that reaction

"I actually think it's a pretty cool name if you ask me I wouldn't worry about it!" He gave the boy his signature grin, while inwardly wondering what was up with him. It must pretty important if he is trying to hide it but Natsu didn't want to make the guy uncomfortable. Returning his gaze for a moment the boy slowly returned a light smile

"Erm...Y-yeah Oro is my name, sorry it just surprised me that you knew it is all" Truth be told he could hardly remember his real name, not since he was separated from Oro, the real Oro that is, not since before the tower, before his world had become 4 walls and a bucket.

"Hehe, well now that that is settled. Do you have Magic Oro? My Dad Igneel has been teaching me. Maybe he can teach you too!"

" **That's enough Natsu, the boy just woke up let him have some rest"** Natsu sheepishly winced at his dad's growl from outside the cave.

"T-that's ok. I er.. Can do a little bit of magic yeah." Natsu went wide eyed with excitement he had never seen any different magic before and could barely contain himself.

"Can you show me? What does it do?!" Natsu was on all fours now staring at Oro. Oro smiled at him

"You're funny, and weird. Can I show you tomorrow? I'm pretty tired still." Natsu sat backwards

"Hey I'm not weird, you're the one that smells funny. But sure I guess, thought you would be better after sleeping for a whole week though! You haven't even had to do any training."

The only response he got were soft snores as he realised Oro had drifted in to sleep. Natsu chuckled and then smirked when he eyed the unfinished food and quickly tucked into it himself.

 _Three months later_

The two boys stood at the top of the boulderfield and dropped the last two of the day back down into the ravine. Oro was panting heavily he still didn't quite have the same stamina as Natsu but had recovered remarkably quickly. He now had a set of baggy trousers he had borrowed from Natsu as his own were wrecked, but was currently going shirtless. His long black hair was now tied into a loose ponytail. Natsu grinned at his friend,

"Just a training fight left and then it's time for dinner!" He grinned wickedly, this was definitely his favourite part of the day. Oro grinned back at him, he couldn't help himself, Natsu was infectious, even his nightmares of the prison cell were fewer and less vivid since he had been staying with them. He stood up stretching his back and getting a satisfying crack as he began to loosen himself up while they walked towards the cave.

"You think it'll be me against you again today or we taking on your Dad?"

"Haha I dunno, hopefully I'm fighting you, I don't feel like losing a match today and Dad is way to strong at the moment"

"Haha, like you can beat me!" Oro Cried back over his shoulder as he ran ahead back to the cave.

"What are you talking about I beat you all the time!" Natsu grinned as he followed after his friend. As he got to the cave he realised he couldn't smell Igneel nearby, shrugging he looked over to see Oro doing some stretches and grinning at him. Natsu thought back to the first time they had squared off.

" _Don't think I'm going to take it easy on you just because you only just got better!"_

 _Oro simply grinned at him and readied himself. He stood still arms by his sides and just nodded. Natsu quickly jumped towards Oro using his fire to propel him faster as he swung his fist at the boy's stomach but it just passed through the air where he had been stood, caught by surprise Natsu turned just in time to half catch a boot flying into his stomach. It pushed him back five feet or so but he had managed to block most of the force of the kick._

 _Before he had time to counterattack Oro was behind him swinging a kick at his face. He caught Natsu just under his Jaw sending him flying backwards. Putting a hand down Natsu dug his hands into the dirt slowing himself to a stop, now standing his hand._

" _You're fast, but I'd like to see you dodge this"_

 ** _Fire Dragon's Roar_**

 _a large torrent of fire raged towards Oro who placed his hands in front of him and clasped them together,_

 _ **Time Dilation**_

 _Stones that were previously scattered across the ground shot up and melded together creating a floating barrier between him and the attack. As the flames cascaded around the stone wall he could feel himself sweating at the incredible heat radiating from the fire. He felt the air escape his lungs as he hadn't seen Natsu move behind him and punch him in the back with everything he had. Oro flew forward and crashed through his own defence toppling to the ground and struggling for breath. As Oro got up on all fours he had clearly had the wind knocked out of him but he managed a smile and a nod to Natsu before passing out._

Oro stepped forwards placing his right fist against the palm of his right hand

 **Time Dilation**

Once again stones began to shift into the air, each one flying to his hands until they formed the shape of a dangerously sharp katana that now ran along his right forearm as he held it, he smirked at Natsu.

"Neat trick, but I saw you practicing it and decided it looked cool so.."

 **Fire Dragon's Burning Sabre**

Natsu crossed his hands back to his sides as red hot flames shot out in the form of two swords of flame.

"Oh and I have two of them" he grinned as he charged towards Oro. Shaking off his surprise that his new technique was no longer a secret Oro ran to meet him, deflecting Natsu's slashes which tore stones loose from the sword but no sooner had they touched the ground they bounced straight back into place. Once Oro had weathered the first wave of Natsu's attack he swung his own sword towards him. Natsu slashed both swords downwards smashing Oro's blade to pieces as the stones flew past him.

"Guess mine are bet-what's so funny?" Oro grinned,

"You didn't break it, look behind you" Natsu glanced over his shoulder to see hundreds of small fragments of stone hovering in the air, in an instant they snapped into place and the sword slashed at him cutting through skin on his chest as he barely managed to avoid the full blade. Cursing Natsu stepped backwards as the floating sword kept swinging at him, he was finding it really hard to follow where it was going to attack from as it wasn't attached to the person swinging it. As a sudden thought flashed through his mind he felt dirt against his back and all he could see was sky.

"Ow, that hurt" Natsu rubbed the back of his head as Oro offered him a hand up which he gladly took.

"Sorry maybe I got carried away. I was fed up of losing to you" Oro smiled slightly

"No worries that was fun, gave me some ideas for new attacks too." Oro looked a touch worried at that but choose not to pursue the matter just then. Looking around they saw the looming shape of Igneel heading towards them.

"Looks like dinner has arrived."

 _Later that Night_

Having eaten as much as they both could Natsu had laid out not far from their fire and was drifting off into slumber, while Oro was pulling on a jacket, inwardly jealous of his friends innate warmth.

"Night Natsu" Oro sighed as he looked at the small campfire

"Night Bro, Night Dad" Oro's eyes snapped to look at Natsu

"What did you just say…" he was almost breathless he was so shocked, he felt a warmth building he could only vaguely remember from a past life.

"What do you mean silly? Igneel is my Dad and your my Brother aren't ya?" Natsu had one eye open and was looking at Oro with a smile.

"I-I…" He sighed "yeah I guess I am...Brother" Natsu closed his eye again and drifted off. Oro watched him intently, listening to Natsu's heartbeat until he was sure that his new brother was asleep. Standing up quietly he crept out of the cave towards Igneel, who lazily opened his eye.

"Um, Igneel?"

 **"What is it Oro?"** Igneel smiled slightly pretty sure he knew what this was going to be about.

"I-I need to talk to you….it's about my parents…"

 _1 year later._

Two figures sat by the side of a small pool, formed by a waterfall cascading through the forest. They were further south than they had ever been before. Chasing whispers and rumours. Resting their feet in the ice cold water was a refreshing respite from the hiking they had been doing.

The boy on the left had messy black hair which he had recently had cut short and a simple white shirt, the other had spiky salmon hair and was carefully watching a fishing lure as it lazily bobbed in the clear water. Both men were wearing a longsleeved jackets that were black in colour.

"You know there aren't any fish worth eating in this pool right?" The Black haired boy casually skimming a stone in circles across the water with his magic.

"You don't know that, I could get lucky! Besides it calms me down whenever I start thinking about Igneel disappearing"

"Natsu…" the boy sighed letting the stone drop into the water.

"Natsu, we need to talk." The pink haired boy looked up to him with a confused look in his eyes. Oro looked at his brother and Natsu could see a deep sadness in his eyes.

"I haven't been completely honest with you. My name is actually Rysler and I don't just use time magic." Natsu moved to talk but Oro silenced him with a pleading look

"Sorry Natsu, please hear me out. I-I am a dragon slayer just like you, my parents name was Ouroborus, the infinity dragon. I was kidnapped while buying clothes in a nearby town, by a group of mages interested in harnessing my powers for themselves. That's how I ended up learning time magic... Thanks to their experiments on me. I managed to escape and was looking of Ouroborus when you found me."

He sighed while Natsu wrapped an arm around his shoulders and simply gave him a hug. Now the scars across his back that Oro never wanted to talk about made sense, same for those distant stares that he occasionally had until Natsu called out to him. Oro was shocked at the sudden closeness, sure he had grown to love Natsu as his brother, but they didn't exactly have the type of relationship that led to much hugging.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that Oro...or whatever your name is, heh, if I ever see the people who did this to you they will pay, I promise, I'll make them pay for what they did to my brother."

"Natsu…" getting a hold of himself Oro pushed Natsu back "You don't understand, Igneel is gone because of me. I spoke to him about my parents asking if he knew them or where they were and he said he had to go find them. It's my fault he's gone"

Natsu blinked for a second taking in this new information seeing the pain in his brother's eyes clearly. Without much of a second thought he broke into one of his signature grins surprising Oro who looked confused but still clearly devastated that he had been responsible for the pain his brother was feeling.

"Well I wish you had told me sooner! We could have been working on your dragon slaying magic this whole time!" Oro was clearly taken back by the cheerful response and clearly didn't know how to process it properly.

"Y-you're not angry with me?...I thought you would hate me…" his voice trailed off to a whisper before he gasped as he was again embraced in a hug by Natsu this one stronger and tighter.

"You're a bigger idiot than I thought then. Bro we are looking for my father how could I not understand you wanting to find your's?" he pulled back slightly before Oro pulled him into a tighter embrace. Natsu could feel warm tears against his face

"Thank you Natsu I was scared you would hate me, t-that's why I hadn't mentioned it." Natsu smiled,

"So what kind of magic did your parents teach you? Wait you said parents as in plural, did you have two dragons?" He could feel Oro begin to laugh

"It's infinity magic, it's why I was able to harness time magic, it affects everything that will and ever could exist, kinda like time does. I use 'parents' because I don't know if they were male or female or if they even had a gender. Didn't know what else to call them honestly"

Oro eventually pulled back and looked lovingly into his brother's eyes.

"Could you perhaps continue to call me Oro, that name only has good memories of my family unlike Rysler."

"Sure thing! Now I think we should get going, you can tell me the rest on the way. I think I have thought of a way to get help finding Igneel and Ouroboros!"

Oro smiled and playfully punched his brother on the arm

"Sure, now what's this plan?"

"We are gonna join a strong guild!"

 _6 years later_

Natsu and Oro stood on either side of the small old man in front of the massive doors to the Fairy tail guild hall. Both were wearing long black jackets only Oro's was without sleeves. They also had simple black shoes and white cotton pants, simple travelling wear. Each holding a small bag over their right shoulder. Oro had the faint promise of stubble and his black hair running just past his shoulders. Neither one of them could really take in the sheer size of the building or of the town they were in. They had both seen small towns and villages before, but their construction had been mostly wooden and simple. This building along with much of Magnolia was made of grand stone structures. The large guild emblem above the doors in a deep red, proudly declared its purpose. The sounds of shouting and things braking could be heard from within. Natsu and Oro looked at each other, both with a small grin while the old man sighed and shook his head.

"Hey gramps, is there usually a fight going on?" Both Natsu and Oro could very well hear and smell the fight going on inside.

"Unfortunately it is quite common, they are quite a rambunctious group of mages." The guild master caught himself and looked at the two young men

"But don't get any ideas, the fighting is not allowed and I will put a stop to it!"

Oro and Natsu just blinked at him for a brief moment and then broke into smiles

"We can stop it for you if you want" The old man stared wistfully wishing for a second before chastising them for being silly. When he opened the doors the noise stopped as everyone inside looked to see who had arrived.

"Oooh that's no fun" both young men sighed before looking at each other with smirks thinking about all the fights they could get into with strong mages.

"Alright you bunch of misfits. We have a couple of new members to the guild and I want you to all show them how they are supposed to behave as fairy tail members!" you honestly could have heard a feather drop after the Master had roared into the guildhall, that is until a fairly drunk girl near the bar hiccupped resulting in raucous laughter from many in the guild hall. The master turned and asked them where they would like their guild marks. Natsu responded first by showing his right shoulder to the old man and Oro followed suit except that he asked for his guild mark to be purple instead of Natsu's red. Spotting the bar off to the side Oro looked at the guild master.

"Can we get something to drink, sorry but we don't have much money…"

"Nonsense boy you are members of fairy tail now and I couldn't let any of my children go hungry or thirsty" At that their eyes lit up thinking of the mountains of food they would be able to get.

"Hey Natsu I'll go get us a snack then, wait here ok." Oro didn't wait for an answer before running over to the bar and asking for some ale and a couple of large steaks with all the sides. After the food was brought out to him on a large wooden tray he started to head back to where he had left Natsu. While looking at the steaming food on the tray he started drooling and forgot to look where he was going and accidently bumped into a white haired woman maybe a year or so older than himself, she was well developed and certainly beautiful with a long black dress hugging both her bust and her hips.

"Hey…" she started, but she stopped as soon as she turned and saw his face. He was her height with scruffy black hair and eyes that almost appeared to have a purple tinge to them they were so dark, they seemed to go on forever. He was wearing a sleeveless coat that hung just below his knees with a plain white sleeveless shirt that barely hid his musculature, not that surprising when you looked at his arms, she thought before pulling herself together and seeing the guild mark on his arm

"S-so you are one of the new guys huh? Just look watch you are going next time!" the white haired girl waited for a response and realised that the boy was no longer looking at her but over her shoulder where a pink haired man was having a heated discussion with wizard she knew to be Gray. it was not hard to hear their conversation

"Dragons don't exist you idiot! How would I know where one was? except for in a stupid book. Quit Lying!" before Mira had time to process this conversation and indeed before even Natsu could retaliate Gray's head had snapped backwards leading his body across the guildhall and smashing into the far wall of the building. A hushed silence quickly descended as everyone turned to hear the sound of a tray hitting the floor and see Oro with his arm still outstretched after he had hit Gray.

"Call my brother a liar again. I dare you" At the bar Makarov leaned forward with interest.

 _Hmm..he seems stronger than I thought, that spike in power was quite impressive. I wonder if that Natsu is also hiding his power_

As he was watching a scarlet haired woman walked over to them

"No one is to start a fight with a fellow guild member!" as she shouted she threw a punch at Oro and everyone winced but it never found it's target, Natsu had caught her fist with his palm and looked up to her

"Hypocrite…" he went to hit her in the stomach but was surprised when she just managed to dodge it, her face twitching with anger

"What did you call me?" her voice was barely a whisper

"No one, and I mean no one, will ever hurt my brother and get away with it" Natsu looked up at her through his fringe that hung loosely over his eyes. Oro clamped a hand on his shoulder

"Natsu I'm sorry but I dropped the food" he pointed to the tray and food scattered on the ground near Mira who looked down in surprise.

"Huh? You idiot what you do that for?!" Natsu shouted as he saw the food and the two men immediately started fighting to the vast amusement of those in the guild who all burst out laughing.

 _Later that day_

Oro and Natsu were sitting by the river just outside of Magnolia relaxing after they had finished with their training. The sun was beginning to near sunset and a warm summer breeze was lazily floating over them. The forest oaks branches were swaying slightly and casting soft shadows that gently caressed the grassy bank. Oro glanced over to his brother and sighed, it was a good sigh, one filled with contentment and comfort.

"It's pretty good here huh?" Natsu smiled, he didn't bother to look at Oro, he knew he was watching the sunset too.

"Reminds me of when we were back with Dad... I get the feeling we can trust these guys."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Feels like a big family, Kinda funny when you think about it. I only had one family member before I found you and Igneel, now there are so many I can't even remember all their names yet."

"Haha too true, you know I think we should tell them about our magic. It's only fair to them, besides they already have one dragon slayer, sure they will be happy to have 3" Oro looked back towards the sun and let out a deep breath

"You're right, guess it would have come out anyway. How should we tell them" He smirked as he already knew Natsu's answer

"So who are we gonna fight?"

"Well they are gonna have to be strong for us to show both our magic styles off. That or we could take two guys on a once maybe" Natsu looked up at the clouds as he debated it.

"Haha, be serious, we have no idea how strong any of them are. They might all be better than us, that is why we picked this guild isn't it?"  
"No way you knocked that Gray guy clean across the room!"

"Only because he was focused on you and didn't see it coming."

"Yeah right...guess we should just ask the old man who we should challenge."

The large guild doors opened with a few guild members looking up to see who had arrived, back lit by the setting sun the two newest members of the guild strode in unison towards the bar and sat down at a table with the red headed girl and a dark haired boy. They both smiled in return to the frowns they received,

"What do you two trouble makers want? The red haired girl asked sternly while Oro held out his hand

"Hey, sorry if we got off on the wrong foot earlier, I'm just protective of my little brother. I'm Oro"

"We are the same age jerk off!"

"Haha yeah but I'm the mature one"

"You take that back!" The scarlet mage had taken Oro's hand but her response was cut off by an angry twitch at Natsu's outburst.

"Erza Scarlet and this is Gray. Will. You. Two. Please. Stop. Fighting!" she was about to hit Natsu when he grinned at her causing to hesitate with surprise.

"Do you know where the old man is?"

"Who?"

"Sorry he means the master, he's never been one for titles." Erza blinked and just sighed with her face buried in the palm of her hand.

"He should be back soon why did you need him? If you want a job you can just grab one from the board over there" Natsu rolled his eyes at Erza

"Not for a job Erza, we wanted to properly introduce ourselves to the guild and show you all our magic. But we don't know who the strongest guys here are so we were gonna ask him who to fight!"

Gray stood up about to propose he beats Oro right now as he hadn't fully forgiven him for the cheap shot earlier when Erza forced him back into the chair and smirked at the brothers.

"I have a better idea boys, why don't you accompany Gray and myself on a job? I will assess your magic and power, then let the master know my recommendation afterwards."  
"I dunno, why would he listen to you?" the soft sound of a white haired girl's' laughter could be heard not far away at Oro's comment. Ignoring Mira, Erza refocused her gaze to the brothers.

"I can't say I'm not intrigued to see what you can do, but it would not be wise to have a fight without the master's consent, this way you will get your fight, master will know who to place you against and you'll get paid."

"Alright we're in, where are we going" Gray sighed and hung his head

"You sure about this Erza?" She smiled and nodded.

"There is a village not far from Mt. Hakobe that has been having problems with a group of bandits. We leave first thing in the morning"

"Ok Let's get back to the forest Natsu"

"Wait what?" "The forest?"

"Yeah where else are we going to sleep?" Both Erza and Gray look at the two boys in surprise as they headed out of the guild cheerfully chatting to each other

"Those two are seriously weird" Gray muttered and noticed that Erza was still watching them go with a slightly confused look on her face.

"True. But they are interesting"

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, the next chapter should be up soon, it's already finished except for some editing that needs doing,

any advice or things you would like me to try and include would be very appreciated.

Until next time!


	2. Chapter 2

Time for chapter 2!

This chapter isn't quite as long as the last but it felt like a good place to break the story up. Natsu and Oro demonstrate their Magic to the Fairy Tail wizards and we get to see an element of Natsu's second type of magic. How they learnt their secondary magic's will be explained later on in the story I promise.

Once again I don't own squat except for the Original characters and story lines

Enjoy!

* * *

The next day Erza arrived at the guild to find the two brothers idly lying on their backs enjoying the sun. Her attention focused on Oro, he was wearing that same tattered black coat that he always wore but his shirt was now gone and she couldn't help but admire the strong musculature on display. Scolding herself for staring she moved forward and waved to them. Catching in her scent they both looked over and waved back.

"Ready to go?" Natsu called as he ran over to meet her

"Well I am but we have to wait for Gray"

"Oh he's inside" Oro smiled, "can smell that guy from a mile away"

Erza cocked her head to the side silently asking the obvious question only to get a devious smirk from the two boys

"We'll explain everything when we show you our magic" Natsu chuckled as he refused to answer the question.

 _3 hours later_

The group were nearing Mt. Hakobe and the village. The trip had been mostly uneventful with the brothers casually chatting to themselves and enjoying the warm spring air.

"I still can't believe how relaxed they are about their first job" Gray whispered to Erza as he glanced back over his shoulder at the brothers,

"That's because it isn't really" Gray froze when he heard Oro reply from easily 40 ft behind them while Natsu started laughing

"You'll have to be A LOT quieter than that if you don't want us to hear you."

Before either Gray or Erza had a chance to respond they saw both brothers tense up, sniff the air and start running towards the village

"Wait! where are you going!" Erza shouted as she took off after them

"Something bad is happening" Oro shouted over his shoulder "It smells evil over there"

As they neared the village the sound of crying along with men shouting could be heard. It was a simple village, with the buildings mostly constructed of wood with stonework foundations. A few of the houses had small vegetable patches and small flower beds. They ran up to one of the nearby buildings and peered around the corner. In the middle of the village there was a prison cart being loaded with children while their parents were shouting and being kept back by a group of men wearing black leather armour.

"Shut up and we won't kill you!" the leader of the group shouted at the adults. "Don't worry we aren't going to kill your children, just put them to work." he finished with an evil looking smile. Hearing this and knowing what was about to happen Natsu quickly put his hand on Oro's shoulder

"Oro, wait we have to be-" he was silenced by his brothers eyes as Oro turned and stepped out into the road

"Sorry Natsu, you know I can't let this slide" Erza was shocked by the look in Oro's eyes, years of pain and torment were clearly visible.

Oro started striding towards the group, as Gray made to follow him Natsu put a hand out and sighed.

"Don't worry, we've got this, I won't let anything bad happen to him ever again. Besides you get to see our magic now right?" He grinned to hide the pain he felt for his brother, and walked past Gray. Gray looked at Erza who was trying to get to grips with that familiar look in Oro's eyes, they were just like hers after, after that. As Oro approached the bandits finally noticed him and a couple began to run at him with swords drawn.

 **Time Dilation**

Before the first man could even get to Oro he lost his grip on his sword as it was wrenched from his hands and impaled straight through his kneecap. Blood gushed out and splattered across his face as he screamed in pain. The bandit looked up confused as Oro was still a good 40 feet away from him. The sword removed itself from the man's leg and flew over to Oro's side hovering over his shoulder with the point aimed at the other bandits, blood slowly dripping to the ground. Natsu walked up beside him,

"Pick a side Natsu, and don't forget to put a show on for the crowd" Oro stated while not taking his eyes off of the incoming bandits

"I'm glad you aren't trying to argue with me bro"

"Figured it would be pointless. You always get involved"

 **Fire Dragon's Flaming Wind**

Natsu shouted as his body erupted into flames and he flew towards the right side of the group, He made quick work of the bandits with well placed kicks and punches that sent them careening into the nearby buildings without any of them having time to react.

 **Infinite Dragon's Quantum Burst**

Oro began to pulse with a purple energy and then disappeared, instantly appearing in front of the bandits to the left along with small floating orbs of purple energy that rose out from his aura and hung in the air. Once there were as many orbs as bandits they darted out hitting each man in the chest before encasing them in purple light. The men cried out in pain before they quickly fell into unconsciousness. The bandit leader looked shocked as almost half of his group had been quickly decimated. Luckily those nearest him were mages too so they weren't beaten yet.

"Stupid kids! What the fuck do you think you are doing! Do you even know who you are dealing with?!" As he shouted dark auras began to surround him and his men

 **Black Tempest**

Further down the road Erza and Gray began running towards the group

"What the hell Erza! I thought these were just supposed to be Bandits?!"

"They were! Hurry we have to help them"

A black cloud hovered over the group before tendrils began snaking down towards the two brothers

"Looks like this won't be too boring then" Natsu grinned as he easily dodged the first tendril but had a leg snared by a second.

"Don't get too cocky. Now how about you stand down like a good boy and I won't hurt your brother...too much" The leader was looking at Oro who had allowed both legs to be caught and just stood still.

"Sorry old man but you just fucked up. This weak magic isn't going to do shit to Natsu. Oh and thanks by the way"

"Huh? Thanks for what you idiot I'm about to steal your power"

Oro smirked, "Thanks for letting me free the children while you were babbling on"

The leader turned and was stunned to see the bars of the cage had decayed to nothing and the children were running back to their parents.

"Hey ass clown don't forget about me!"

 **Fire Dragon's Wing Attack**

Natsu engulfed his leg in flames, and as he flipped over he swung his leg towards the tendril that was holding him. Fire erupted along the tendril, travelling back into the cloud which presently exploded, raining fire down upon the dark mages who immediately starting firing streams of black energy at both of the dragon slayers.

 **Iron will**

Natsu held his hands outwards with his fingers splayed, a crackling blue energy began to spark between them, before shooting outwards and creating a barrier that absorbed and destroyed all of the magic fired his way.

 **Infinite Dragon's Void**

The bolts of energy fired at Oro meanwhile were being dragged and sucked into a glowing orb of purple energy floating in front of him.

"You guys just keep making mistakes huh?" Oro smirked as the orb shattered into 40 or so smaller orbs that shot back at the mages rendering many of them unconscious. The Bandit leader just turned and ran towards Natsu, anger and fury evident as he aimed another black beam at him,

 **Ice Make Tunnel**

A cylinder appeared in front of the beam and wrapped upwards before curving back towards the bandit leader. The man screamed as he was hit with his own magic while Erza made quick work of the remaining mages with using her heaven's wheel armour.

"Looks like we didn't have to bother brother" Oro smiled as Natsu pulled him into a quick hug,

"Hope this didn't bring back bad memories Oro"

"Nah, I'm ok, you know how I can get when I see people being taken like that" Natsu returned his smile and turned to see a smiling Gray while Erza was finishing tying up the bandits.

"So you guys have some skill thats for sure, what kind of magic was that?"

"Well we are both Dragon slayers, My Dad was Igneel the Fire Dragon King and Oro's was Ouroborus the Infinite Dragon" Natsu replied with a smirk.

"Thought you said you were brothers?"

"Oh we are, Natsu found me when I was young and brought me back to live with him and Igneel for a while"

"Right but what abou-"

"Anyway that's why we are able to smell where people are. We also have better sight and hearing. It's kinda why we joined fairy tail too, you see my dad Igneel went missing and we were hoping that by meeting other mages we might be able to get some clues on where to find him" Natsu quickly interrupted Gray before the questions could get too painful for him.

"Really? Why?" Erza now joined in with an interested smile on her face, she was going to have to talk to levy about getting some information on dragons when she got back. This time it was Oro who answered, grateful for Natsu diverting the conversation

"Well because we were raised by dragons we also inherited some of their traits, Natsu for example is immune to fire and can even eat it. And we're both naturally more resilient and strong"

Gray leaned back slightly with a question in his eyes

"So if you really can smell us, what do I smell like?"

Natsu smiled, "Oh that's easy, peppermint, pine, which is a really weird mix by the way an-" Gray was frowning at Natsu before Oro interrupted "And Erza smells like Lilacs, strawberries and...and hope" she met his gaze as he hesitated over the last word blushing slightly as he continued to stare into her eyes

"What about you two?" Gray pointed at Natsu and Oro as he choose not to acknowledge Erza's blush, he wasn't about to risk getting on her bad side.

"Well Natsu smells like campfires, grilled peppers and will" Oro was still looking at Erza as he replied

"And Oro…" Natsu paused a moment to consider his answer, he had never been able to describe it, he would certainly never forget it and he thought it was a good smell but he had never been able to find the right words

"Well Oro kinda smells like everything" This got a surprised look from both Erza and Gray

"How can you smell of everything?"

"I dunno he just does"

"Could you also explain what Will and er...Hope smell like?" Erza had been lost in Oro's eyes but had finally managed to shake herself free, making him realise he had been staring and looking for something, he just wasn't sure what.

"That's a bit harder to explain, it's kinda like salt"

"Salt?"

"Yeah like you can't describe what salt tastes like but you know it when you taste it right. Other stuff tastes like salt"

"Still not getting you"

Oro sighed as he looked to Natsu for help but his brother just shrugged his shoulders and kept walking

"Well when we smell those things we know what they are just like you know the taste of salt but there is no way I could describe its smell with any other words"

"Nope don't get it" Gray stuffed his hands into his pockets and kept walking, he was trying to work out why Oro had interrupted Natsu earlier, what was the last thing he smelt of?

"I think I understand" Erza mumbled with while looking at the ground, she didn't want to risk looking at Oro again she couldn't understand why she got lost in his eyes so easily, sure they were unusual and beautiful to look at but that isn't the kind of thing that happened to her.

 _It was as if he was looking right through me, like he could see everything…_

Gray interrupted her train of thought

"So you guys can actually smell emotions?" Natsu laughed

"Not exactly no, although Oro can kinda see them" He gave his brother a wink "It's more that a strong, constant emotion that you have had for a long time begins to leave a scent."

"Huh. So what was mine? Oro interrupted you before"

"I'll tell you later, I wouldn't worry about it." Gray silently fumed, why wouldn't they tell him?

 _I guess Oro had a reason for not telling him I better just wait until I find out why_

Natsu mused as the town of Mongolia came into view.

"So Erza I meant to ask"'

"Yes Natsu"

"How did we do? You think Ice for brains is strong enough to fight one of us?"

"What did you call me?!" Gray was about ready to start a fight there and then

"Gray, shirt." Erza sighed and pinched her nose

"Why does he do always do that?" Oro asked as he caught up with them

"Something to do with his training I think, and to answer Natsu's question; I can't be sure but you are both probably almost as strong as Gray, which would still put you both in the top half of the Guild in terms of ranking." Oro smirked at Natsu

"Guess we didn't show them enough brother" Natsu grinned

"Guess not, now we will definitely have to have a match with someone"

As they approached the guild Gray motioned to Natsu,

"Come on then let's go out back and spar, let's see if you can back that stupid mouth of yours up"

"I will let the Master know. Don't go too hard on him Gray" Erza headed into the guild while Oro and Natsu followed Gray around the building to a training pit roughly 60 by 60 feet in size and 15 feet deep. There were wooden benches running around the edges giving enough seating for about 100 or more people.

"What's this for?"

Without replying Gray hopped down into the pit using his ice magic to make a slide down to the bottom.

"It's mostly used for general training but we also hold competitions between the guild members every once in awhile. Gramps thought that if we had an official place to fight we would wreck the guild less"

"Did it work?"

"Not really, it probably increased the number of fights, although there is a tournament in a few weeks which might be a good way for you to find out where you rank in the guild if that's what you want"

"Being in this guild is gonna be awesome!" Natsu lept into the pit. There was the sound of running feet coming from the guild hall and Oro saw what must have been every member who had been inside coming out to see the fight between Natsu and Gray.

"I'm not gonna take it easy on you just because you're new around here"

Makarov walked to the edge of the pit, and dropped his hand from above his head to signal them to start.

 **Fire Dragon's Flaming Wind**

Natsu immediately flew around the edge of the pit leaving a trail of fire that began to build as he ran in circles around Gray. The temperature of the pit began to increase and there was a warm glow across all the spectators faces as they watched.

"You are fast I'll give you that but…"

 **Ice Make Floor**

Gray punched the ground unleashing a large magic circle and almost instantly froze the floor of the pit. Natsu slipped and crashed straight into the side of the pit creating a large cloud of dust much to everyone's amusement.

"Smarter than you look ice pick I'll give you that" everyone looked to see natsu wreathed in in a bright red fire, the ice beginning to melt and crack under his feet as he walked towards Gray

"Looks like I'll have to take you a little more seriously"

 **Fire Dragon's Blazing Wing**

Natsu swung his arm towards Gray sending a large arc of condensed fire flying towards him,

 **Ice Make Tower**

A pillar of ice rose up beneath Gray to avoid the attack and he used the momentum to push himself up out of the pit before descending down towards Natsu

 **Ice Make Hammer**

Gray brought a huge hammer crashing down towards Natsu who hadn't had a chance to move. Above Erza was stood next to Oro

"Sorry I tried to tell Gray to take it easy he gets too carried away sometimes"

There was a loud crashing sound as the hammer came down onto Natsu who was stood smiling at Gray with one hand holding the edge of the hammer. Thin blue lines of energy were quickly spreading across the hammer before it turned into nothing more than Ice cubes that scattered to the ground. Gray stood looking surprised,

"How did you do that?"

"Well, I wasn't completely honest with you earlier. Yes I am a Fire Dragon slayer but I also know Force magic"

 **White Tremor**

Natsu thrust his entire forearm into the ground causing more of the blue lines to criss cross across the ice covered ground until the entire floor shattered into large cubes that lept into the air. Natsu quickly flipped up so he was standing on his hand, spinning his legs he kicked two of the ice blocks at Gray who was stood stock still, completely dumbfounded. At the last second he managed to dive out of the way only to find himself being struck by Natsu in the stomach

 **Fire Dragon's Iron Fist**

Grey flew backwards smashing several of the ice blocks on his way into the far wall. Makarov smiled before raising his hand back into the air

"That'll do. Good fight Gray and well done Natsu" Gray was walking back towards the Dragon slayer with a wry smile

"You do know you kinda cheated right?"

"Haha, just thought it would make the fight more entertaining if you didn't know about my force magic beforehand" Gray made an ice tower raise up underneath them and they stepped off onto the sides of the pit.

"Oro my boy, who are you fighting?" looking around there wasn't anyone obviously stepping forward at this point

"Whoever you want old man" Oro jumped into the pit. The ice blocks were still all floating at various heights in the pit. "Stop showing off Natsu" he whispered hearing a chuckle before the ice blocks all shattered.

"Bickslow, you're up"

There was some muttering in the crowd at this, the man in question looked at a tall muscular blonde man who simply nodded. At that Bickslow jumped down into the pit and let out 4 small toys that began to float around his head. Oro raised an eyebrow, not so much that they were floating but at the choice of toys being used. They were all stuffed teddy bears in varying shades of pink.

Once again Makarov dropped his hand to begin the fight.

"Hey Natsu hold this for me would ya?" Oro threw his coat up to the top of the pit. A few of the girls watching tried to hide slight blushes, but Erza couldn't help but look at his back. There were hundreds of scars littered across it, in varying angles. She felt a lump in her throat and a rising anger at the sight, but couldn't take her eyes off it.

 _What happened to you…?_

"I warn you I'm not quite the show off my brother is"

"Hey shut up! You're just as bad as me!"

Bickslow stuck his tongue out and tilted his head before laughing maniacally, the four stuffed toys began moving towards Oro and firing beams of green energy at him from various different angles. Oro simply put out his hand, palm facing upwards

 **Infinite Dragons Void**

when he closed his fist a floating purple orb appeared and all of the energy beams began to be sucked into it.

"I think you may be at a disadvantage here" The orb shattered into purple orbs that all flew towards Bickslow. Just before the balls of energy could connect all the toys jumped in front of Bickslow and were smashed to pieces.

"Good job I always carry spares" Bickslow pulled out four more toys, these while also being stuffed toys, were all varying shades of blue. They began to spin around around Oro constantly increasing their speed.

 **Soul Typhoon**

A sickly green light connected the toys, turning into a whirling typhoon of magic that constricted towards Oro. It crashed into Oro throwing a cloud of dust, sand and rubble into the air.

"Some advantage huh?" Bickslow turned to leave the pit only to come face to face with Oro

"Yup"

 **Infinity Dragon's Limitless fist**

Oro thrust his fist into Bickslow's chest leaving no immediate effect before Oro jumped back separating the two fighters. Bickslow, who was expecting pain just looked at Oro

"Is that it.." he was stopped suddenly as he coughed up blood and and stepped backwards clutching his stomach. He looked down in surprise and then back to Oro who only returned his stare with a wry smile before Bickslow was dropped to his knees again feeling a hard impact into his stomach.

"That spell will keep hitting you until I end it. This fight is over"

"Ha, is that what you think?" the toys began to circle Oro again

 **Soul Extinction**

The dolls started to glow with an intense light, and Oro felt a tug at something in his stomach, he panicked slightly unsure of what was happening. He felt dizzy, placing a hand to his head he frowned with a faint realisation settling his initial fear. Desperately trying to focus he clasped his hands together in front of him.

 **Infinity Dragon's Endless Claw**

A large Claw appeared that resembled a purple dragon's claw and shot towards Bickslow attached to a seemingly endless arm that passed through Bickslow's chest eliciting a pained scream as he collapsed on the ground.

"Sorry, looks like I put too much on that one" Oro bent over and gently lifted Bickslow onto his shoulder before leaping out of the pit and placing him on the ground. He turned to face Makarov with a sheepish smile

"Oops"

Makarov smiled at the boy,

"Not to worry boy, he's had much worse. Erza could I speak to you for a moment?" Erza who had been watching Oro intently as he retrieved his coat from Natsu looked over to Makarov and nodded slightly before following him inside the guild.

"What is it Master?

"Those boys, they are definitely S-class level, so we are going to set up a trial for them in a couple of days. So I need to you to get them out of the way, seeing as yourself and Gray have spent the most time with them I was hoping you would know an easy way to get rid of them for a while"

Erza nodded she didn't want to lie to the boys, and she wasn't even sure if she could. Whenever Oro met her eye's it was like he could see right through her. She would have to hope Natsu wasn't the same.

"I believe I have a way"

* * *

Well that's it for chapter 2, i wanted to show the other magic the two boys had, and there are other spells i've got cooked up for future fights.

I should clarify as well, that while Oro knocked Bickslow unconscious that was mainly because he put more power than he should have into a sparring match as he was a bit panicked not really knowing what the spell was doing to him. While Natsu beat Gray again that was because he caught him by surprise, while Natsu is stronger than the canon he is currently very close to Gray's level who is also stronger, this will be explained later as well.

If i had to compare them to someone in canon for reference I'd say the brothers an Gray are currently a shade below Erza at this point in the story, the next chapter will have them meeting Lucy in Hargeon to give some context to timing.

Hope you enjoyed reading it, honestly it's taking a bit longer to get to the main story I've been thinking of but I didn't want it to feel rushed

Please read and reveiw

Thanks


	3. Chapter 3

Hello again!

This chapter sees the introduction of Lucy and there is a little bit more detail about the developing relationship the guild members have with the two brothers.

Many thanks to those who have read and hopefully enjoyed the previous chapters and welcome to any new readers I hope you enjoy the story.

* * *

Natsu and Oro walked off the train holding their stomachs and wheezing slightly as they were both trying to recover from the motion sickness. Once back on solid ground Oro groaned heavily as the two brothers dropped onto the grass outside the station.

"I fucking hate you Natsu, this lead is never gonna be Igneel and I had to go through that, for nothing"

"Shut up you silly time bandit, Erza said that a Salamander was in town and she doesn't seem like the type to lie" Natsu groaned back. They both sat up with their stomachs starting to recover and saw a blonde woman run past them towards a group of shrieking women. Natsu stared after her, feeling a strange tug in his stomach. Not sure what it was he suppressed it when he heard Oro's laughing.

"Like what you see brother?"

"Shut up. It's just a girl" she had been running towards a large group of shrieking women down in the town

"I was just wondering what's going on down there. We should go check it out"

"Good idea one of them might have seen Igneel or at least heard about him." Oro rolled his eyes and began to walk towards the group. They both shared a look as they approached hearing the words 'salamander' being shouted by the group of girls. Oro walked into the crowd while Natsu had begun searching the sky for the salamander they were all talking about. At the centre of the crowd there was a tall man with short dark hair signing autographs for the young women. Spotting Oro enter the crowd he raised an eyebrow

"Hello young man can I help you?" he smiled somewhat menacingly as he looked Oro over who kept a calm exterior and kept his seething rage (about this dick being the 'salamander' they had come to look for) hidden behind a wide grin.

"Just one question really… Remember me?" The man's eyes widened as for the first time he spotted the the scruffy black hair, long black coat and the biggest give away the pink haired kid stood frowning behind him"

"S-s-sorry girls I will have to see you on my boat for the party later" he started running towards the docks but was suddenly stopped in his tracks. There was a small black orb floating about 5 feet behind the man calling himself the salamander and it appeared to be dragging him slowly and inexorably towards it. Oro grinned as he slowly increased the spell's potency slowly drawing the man back towards him.

"Sorry but you didn't answer my question, and I thought you would have known better after the last time we met."

"Yo! Oro" Oro turned around to see his brother trying to stifle a laugh and pointing to the pack of woman about to jump on him for assaulting their idol.

"W-w-wait, girls. You don't understand this guy's using magic to trick you. He wants to make you all slaves!" Oro tried to defend himself but the girls were caught up in a rage and all dived on top of him while Natsu cried with laughter. As Natsu sat up he saw the blonde girl from before looking at him with curiosity. She had chocolate brown eyes that quickly turned away and her cheeks dusted with pink when she realised that Natsu was looking at her. That unfamiliar knot in his stomach began tugging again and he quickly shook himself out of it and headed towards Oro who was just laying on the floor muttering to himself as the girls had all run off after the man calling himself Salamander.

"...god damn stupid charm spells." Oro lifted his head to look at Natsu as he approached

"Can't believe you got beat by a few school girls"

"You know I couldn't do anything back to em."

"Yeah, yeah, so what do you think? Igneel was clearly never here so we can bail out and go hit Erza for being full of shit"

"Nope. We gotta put that guy down. Not letting anyone take anyone prisoner again remember?"

"Yeah I figured. Erza can wait and this way I get two fights so sounds good to me!"

"Don't you ever think of anything e-" he looked up before he finished and saw the blonde girl blushing slightly and standing nervously to their side

"Nevermind." Oro stood up and walked over to her offering his hand she timidly shook it and then bowed her head to them which took them both off guard for a brief moment before they both started chuckling

"Nice to meet you miss I'm Oro and that's my brother Natsu" he pointed a thumb over his shoulder.

"Did you mean Erza Scarlet from the fairy tail guild?" Oro and Natsu bother nodded

"Do you think it would be possible for me to join? I have always wanted to." She had seen the guild markings and saw the black haired one use magic but she was slightly confused as she could feel very little magic power coming from them. But she had heard of Erza, she was really powerful and it didn't really matter to her how powerful these two were if they could get her into Fairy Tail. Oro gave her a wink and turned to walk towards the port.

"Sure thing just let me take care of this fake salamander and you can come back to the guild with us."

Natsu smirked and looked over to the blonde

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Oh! Er Lucy, and thanks for breaking that charm spell it felt really weird"

"Cool name luce, don't worry about. Hey this is gonna be fun, if you want to join in feel free!" He started running after his brother towards the port.

 _Those two are really odd, I wonder if it will be a good thing for them to introduce me to the guild…_

In the Harbor Bora was hastily getting the girls onto his boat before those two caught up with him. One of his men came out of the ship and gave him a puzzled look.

"What's going on? I thought we were going to be here for a few days to get as many of them as possible."  
"Shhh. Idiot, it's those two boys again. I don't know why but they just showed up out of nowhere and I barely got away"

"Who?"

"Those two brothers who busted our base a year back" the man paled at this information nodded and ran inside to get the boat started.

The sun was beginning to set when the trio reached the port casting red and orange hues over the stone work of Hargeon. They could see a large boat moving towards the open sea. With their enhanced vision both dragon slayers were able to see a man stood at the back of the boat looking towards the town slowly receding into the distance.

"Bora" Oro's voice was more of a growl which took Lucy by surprise, Natsu got into a fighting stance

"Oro, you can hold that still right?"

"Yep, not for that long though it's pretty far away and a pretty big boat. You ready?" Hot red flames began to rise up Natsu's legs as he bent his knees further.

"Lucy was it? Can you hold this for me?" Oro tossed his coat to her not noticing it hit the ground as she was staring at the fire wrapping around Natsu. Oro moved his arms in a circle in front of him stopping when they were at the top and bottom of the circle

 **Eve-**

"I can get the boat back to shore if you want" Both of them dropped their stances

"You can?" Lucy nodded and pulled a jar full of distilled water from her bag, she had learnt a long time ago that if the water wasn't good enough Aquarius would always get her as well as her target. The brothers watched as Lucy removed a golden key from her waist and dipped it into the water. A bright golden flash later and a beautiful blue haired mermaid appeared next to her.

"Lucy. Who are they?" she gestured over to the brothers before leaning towards lucy and whispering in her ear "Which one's yours?" Lucy blushed heavily

"Neither! I only just met them" Aquarius smirked at Lucy's discomfort

"Still no boyfriend huh, well they are both pretty good looking so I'll just take whichever one you don't want shall I? Maybe the pink haired one…"

"NO!" Lucy's reaction even surprised herself. Natsu and Oro were both blushing and trying to avoid the lusty gaze of the celestial spirit.

"Can you just bring that boat back to shore please" Lucy looked at the ground wanting to just curl up into a ball.

"Sure thing dear" Aquarius patted Lucy on her head, placing her urn in the water the boys watched as a surge of water seemed to roll like a wave towards the boat. A huge wave started to grow and crash back towards the town carrying the ship with it.

"Lucy...your magic is so cool" Natsu muttered

"Yep, definitely the pink haired one" Aquarius smiled as Lucy closed the gate sending her back just as the boat crashed onto the beach

"Um thanks Natsu.."

"Now it's our turn. Oro get the girls back to town and I'll take care of Bora." Both mages ran towards the boat. It looked like an old cruise liner with wooden railings around the walkways and what at one point had been a swimming pool but was now housing a group of slumped over women. Oro ran over to the edge of the boat and leapt up grabbing onto the railing and pulling himself over the edge. He managed to get five steps towards the pool before a group of men ran out from the main building. All of them looked angry but Oro could see some were shaking slightly.

 **Fire Dragon's Flaming Wind**

Natsu had ignited his body with a hot red fire and flew over Oro's shoulder straight past the men and crashed through the building's wall completely ignoring the open door. Oro inwardly laughed at his rash brother before placing his right fist into his left palm

 **Time Dilation…**

Inside, the ship was sparsely decorated with a few upturned tables and chairs scatter about and a pack of playing cards scattered across the ground. Along one of the walls there were 5 girls, heads hanging limply and chained to the wall with grotesque looking manacles around their necks. Bora was stood on the other side of the room a grim and angry frown staring death at Natsu who landed and let his fire die so as not to set any of the wooden surfaces on fire. He couldn't risk hurting the girls.

"Ready to loose again Bora?"

 **Red Shower**

Beams of red fire shot across the room, Natsu started to move before he realised that he wasn't the real target of the spell and that they would all miss him and hit the girls.

 _Shit I can't eat all of them in time._

 **Iron Will**

A sheet of blue energy appeared in front of the girls, absorbing the beams as they each struck the wall. Turning back to look at Bora who quaked at the fury etched into Natsu's face

"Dirty trick. You really shouldn't have done that."

 **Fire Dragon's Roar**

A massive stream of fire erupted from his mouth smashing into Bora and firing him through the wooden wall and across the city until he cracked into a building. His body slid down to the cobblestone floor leaving a trail of blood from the back his head down the stonework. Outside Oro was helping the girls get up out of the pool when he saw the stream of fire.

"Shit that was a bit over the top Natsu." Lucy had just got to the boat and with the aid of Taurus was helping the girls climb down onto the beach. She could hear the sounds of running footsteps behind her and turned to see a group of rune knights heading their way. When they arrived she explained the situation and they moved to help Oro and Lucy get the girls off the boat. Natsu walked slowly out of the main cabin gently carrying a girl in his arms. Lucy couldn't believe that the man who had just blown half of the ship away was capable of being so gentle. Oro looked at the girl and then Natsu, silently asking the question.

"She's alive. But she and the others need to get to a hospital soon. I don't even want to know what he to them" he lept over the railing and landed on the sand being careful not to hurt the girl. He gently laid her down on the sand and glanced up at the Rune knights.

"Sorry if I damaged anything I just kind of lost it when he tried to attack them instead of me. He should be in the town still. I doubt he has woken up yet after the hit he took." Natsu pointed towards the building Bora had crashed into and stood up. A few of the knights ran over to apprehend the culprit while Natsu resumed collecting the chained girls and gently placing them down on the beach.

 _He's so caring_

Lucy had to force herself to stop watching Natsu and get back to helping the girls off the boat. By the time they had them all off the boat the sun had fully set.

"Guess we won't be getting back to the guild today then"

"Let's hope there is an inn open we can stay at"

Lucy looked up at that "The inn I am staying at should be open still and I think they had some rooms free" Natsu and Oro both grinned, if she hadn't seen them earlier she wouldn't have believed that they were both capable of any kind of violence. They both looked so carefree and happy. The only thing she wasn't sure about is why Oro was topless...

"Crap! Sorry Oro I forgot to pick up your coat!" he shrugged and ran over to retrieve it.

"Don't worry I'll catch you both up." Natsu smiled after him and turned to look at Lucy

"Shall we?"

Early morning the next day and the guild had an odd hush around it. Like everyone was desperately trying to act normal and relaxed but doing a completely horrific job of it. The doors were kicked open and everyone was surprised to see three people stood in the doorway. They were more surprised when the open door dropped off it's hinge and fell to the ground with a crash

"Oh shit...my bad" Natsu put his hand behind his head and walked in towards the bar.

"Hey Mira! Do you know where Erza is"

"Why the hell would I know where that tin can is?"

"Well I need to give her a piece of my mind for giving me bullshit information about Igneel"

"Oh why didn't you say so Natsu. She's in the library with Levy"

Natsu made a beeline across the guildhall before stopping about halfway across

"Er Mira… where is the Library"

The guild broke into laughter as Oro put his hand on Lucy's shoulder who was giggling at the salmon haired boy.

"Come on, we better get you to the old man so he can give you a guild mark"

"Isn't there some kind of test to see if you are good enough?" Oro just looked blankly at her

"Well me and Natsu didn't so I wouldn't have thought so" Lucy breathed a sigh of relief she had been terrified of getting here only to be told she wasn't strong enough to join.

Downstairs in the Library Erza was pouring over a large book about a certain type of magic user. Levy was helping her research but selecting a few other books from the shelves that should contain some information about them and dragons.

"Well this has confirmed pretty much everything they have told me about their abilities. I still can't believe they inherit so much from the Dragon's that teach them." Levy looked over to her

"Yeah I know right! Speaking of which, did they say which dragons raised them?"

"Yeah, Natsu and I guess Oro too a little bit was raised by the fire dragon king Igneel, and Oro was raised by Ouroborus the infinite dragon before that"

"Oh cool I wonder-WAIT did you just say Ouroborus?!"

"Er, yeah why?"

Levi ran over to another book and pulled it out and brought it over to Erza

"I don't know anything particular about Igneel but Ouroboros is a big deal"

She showed the book to Erza which was an old leather book with a purple, gold and silver dragon emblazoned on the front. The dragon appeared to be eating it's own tail.

"If it's the same dragon as the one in this book then it's pretty much responsible for everything in the universe." Erza just stared at Levi and the book in shock

"It represents everything, hence it's name and it lives in the realm between our worlds and the Gods themselves, apparently swimming through the endless void protecting the barrier and everything on both sides of it.

"I-I had no idea. I wonder if it is the same one" Before they could continue researching the door slammed open and Natsu strode into the room

"What the hell Erza! That was some bullshit, that guy looked nothing like a dragon how could you make that mistake" Erza smiled sheepishly

"Sorry Natsu, but Master asked me to get you guys out of the guild for a few days"

"Oh why?" Natsu's anger immediately replaced by his curiosity

"You'll have to ask him"

"Well I supposed it wasn't a complete bust we found someone to join the guild"

"Oh who's that?"

"He name is Lucy she has this really cool magic where a mermaid comes and she brought the boat back to shore so we could save the girls and then a weird bull guy to help get the girls off the boat she's with Oro upstairs right now you should come meet her." He finished a little out of breath having not taken one while explaining. Erza looked at him with a small frown.

"Yes, I think I should. Sounds like quite a story, you'll have to fill me in after I meet this Lucy"

Levi chuckled as she was pretty sure she knew why Erza had wanted to research the Dragon slayers so much.

Mira's shoulders sagged slightly as she saw Erza and Natsu appear from the Library unscathed. In fact Natsu was talking animatedly to Erza who was clearly listening while looking around the guild. Levi was stood behind them giggling. Mira walked over to Levi and hissed in her ear

"What the hell happened Levi? I thought they were gonna go at it!" Levi leaned over to her

"I think Erza likes one of the new guys" An evil smile came across Mira's face, she had been hoping for a fight but this was even better

"Oh which one?" Levi shrugged

"I'm not sure yet, could be Natsu, she's been getting fairly annoyed listening to him go on and on about the new girl he brought back. But it could also be Oro because he is with the new girl right now" This was great, Mira now had a way to torture her rival and she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. As she was contemplating how to work out which one of the brothers was 'the apple of Erza' eye' Makarov appeared from his office with a pretty blonde whose figure would rival Mira's own in tow. Oro walked past them and down the stairs towards Natsu and Erza. The redhead was basically staring a hole right through Oro and the Blonde, her eyes flitting between the two.

 _I guess that answers that question_

"Hey Mira what are you doing?" She looked down at the voice to see her sister Lisanna looking at her with a worried look.

"Oh nothing much, just trying to work out which one of the new boys Erza likes" Lisanna blushed slightly but Mira was too busy trying to make absolutely sure she was correct in her thinking.

"It's Natsu right? I mean it has to be"  
"Why would you say that Lis?"

"Didn't you seem him fight Gray? He was so, so, so cool" Mira rolled her eyes as Makarov called everyone's attention and introduced Lucy as the newest member of the guild.

"While I'm talking about new recruits, I have organised a special trial for our two young dragon slayers. It will take place tomorrow and bets can be placed at the bar" He sniggered and walked back into his office

"A trial? But I haven't done anything wrong!" Natsu groaned

"Not that kind of trial you dolt, that's why I told you about the salamander rumour, Makarov didn't want you two poking your dumb noses in while he was setting 'it' up"

Oro and joined them and was finding himself growing increasingly confused by the angry stares he was getting from Erza.

"O-Okay, but what is this trial for? And why are you looking at me like that?" Erza blushed and turned around.

"It is to see if you are strong enough to become an S-class mage, they are our guilds group of strongest wizards"

"Ok thats awesome. I totally forgive you now" Natsu was grinning like an idiot

"I wonder what we will be fighting"

"Not what Oro, it's more like who" Erza was now staring a hole in floor,

"You will have to complete the trial Master has set up while dealing with the other S-class mages we have at the guild"

"So who are they?"

"There is Laxus, Gildarts, Mystogan, Mirajane, Myself and Gray made it last year"

"Wait we have to fight all of you guys?"

"No, no, Mystogan and Gildarts are out on missions, and Laxus doesn't think either of you are strong enough to be worth his time so it'll just be Mirajane, Gray and myself, although it's not really a fight, more of a series of challenges you have to beat"

"Well I've already beaten Gray so this won't be too hard, especially if we get to work together" Oro gave him a gentle punch on the shoulder

"Let's go get some training in for tomorrow then"

* * *

Well that's it for chapter 3!

Took me a bit longer to edit as the whole Bora incident isn't the most exciting in my opinion but i needed to get Lucy into the story, which also means that we have now caught up to the canon timeline. Lisanna is still around because without Natsu having been there when she 'died' there wouldn't have been much for me to add character wise by having her gone. I also like Mira's pushier persona. She is still alive as Elfman was able to control the take over in this story so like Gray he is a bit more powerful at this point in the story. Next chapter will be the trials and I may get to the start of the lullaby arc.

Thanks for reading, please review and let me know where I'm going wrong or not.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey Guys!

Sorry for the longer than usual wait, this weekend has been mental. This chapter has the S class test for Natsu and Oro and will move us into the start of the Lullaby Arc. We won't see any evidence of it here but I have decided that Lucy will be more competent than in Canon, I like her character generally but what with the brothers and Gray being more powerful, I think it would be incongruous to have her be so much weaker and allowed to be in the team.

Anyway hope you all enjoy chapter 4!

* * *

Behind the guild hall a large construction made of stone and wood rose out of the ground, it must have been at least sixty foot tall and it stretched out into the forest around Magnolia. Oro and Natsu were stood outside the entrance with a small crowd of onlookers sitting down and getting ready to watch the action on large television lacrimas. Natsu was wearing a sleeveless vest with white baggy pants while Oro had his long sleeveless coat with similar trousers to Natsu. As they entered the building light lacrimas began to glow and illuminate as the walked leading them further inside. The tunnel continued for what felt like hours, simple stonework followed simple stone work. It was seemingly endless and the boys had become bored. After an hour or so they stopped and looked around. Oro palmed his own face and groaned

"We really are idiots Natsu"

"Speak for yourself!"

"What can you smell?"

"Nothing wh-" it suddenly dawned on him, this was the first time in his life his nose wasn't being bombarded by thousands of different scents.

"And I'm guessing that the only reason that I'm not freezing cold right now is because you're stood right next to me"

"You mean Gray did this? How? It looks so real"

"I got no idea, we'll just have to ask him once you've melted the ice. That won't be a problem for you will it?"

Oro raised an eyebrow at Natsu as he teased his brother.

"You might want to back up a bit bro"

Orange Flames encased Natsu's body and began to expand outwards, the colour getting lighter as the heat radiating off his body increased. When he was wrapped in his white fire it blew outwards melting the ground he was stood on, there was a shimmer before the fire died down and the two boys found themselves in the middle of a forest pools of water from the melted ice surrounding them. Oro was sweating profusely and used some of the melt water to cool himself down. The distant sounds of cheers could be heard from their guildmates. As they looked around a large number of assorted weaponry struck the ground around them forming a large circle that completely encompassed them. Equipped in her normal armour Erza stepped into the middle of the circle and looked at them with a determined look on her face. Oro grinned and shook his head slightly,

"I don't think you thought this through Erza"

 **Time Dilation**

Four of the spears embedded in the ground flew towards him hovering in the air around his shoulders while two swords flew over to Natsu. Taking the swords he coated them in an orange flame and the two brothers ran towards a stoic Erza. Natsu aimed the blades towards her lower body while Oro sent the spears towards her chest

 **Requip**

There was a bright flash followed by cloud of dust. As it cleared Erza could be seen, her scarlet hair flowing past her shoulder holding a long spear. Thirty feet away from her and lying on the ground were Natsu and Oro. They got to their feet slowly both smiling at her

"What the hell just happened?"

"You tried to use my weapons against, me. When I requipped they were sent back to my pocket dimension"  
"So it was a dirty trick?"

"Not really. It takes more than brute strength to be an S class wizard, you also have to be able to strategize and take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses." She appeared behind Oro striking his back with the flat of the blade causing a painful ache to erupt across to his shoulders.

"Your's is that while you are strong you are better from a range and when your enemy attacks with energy based magic. Mine isn't and I'll be staying up close."

"Hey don't forget about me!"

 **Fire Dragon's Scorching Ray**

A large red magic circle appeared in front of Natsu and he slammed his fist into the circle causing a wide beam of fire to rocket towards Erza, who spun her spear and deflected the blow away.

"This spear resists fire, you are gonna have to do a lot better than that to beat me." Natsu growled and leaped towards her, as she moved behind Oro, she was keeping Oro between them causing Natsu to roar in frustration as he couldn't land a blow without hurting Oro. Oro Meanwhile was barely keeping up with Erza's speed, he had cuts across his forearms where he had blocked her attacks. He however was grinning wildly, drawing a smile from Erza in return. Looking at her attack, both fast and deliberate he was in awe, sparring with Natsu for years had developed his strength and taught him to improvise against an instinctual and unpredictable opponent but this was something new. Strength and Intelligence in equal measure, while dodging her attacks he couldn't help be find her graceful movements beautiful, he studied her movements looking for a pattern and struggling to discern one.

 **Infinite Dragon's Quantum Burst**

Oro was wrapped in Purple energy and then he suddenly disappeared, Natsu grinned

"Run away from this!"

 **Fire Dragon's Roaring Inferno**

Fire wrapped around Natsu pulsing into a bright blue light and quickly expanding into a searing hot inferno completely enveloping Erza

 **Requip**

As the bright light faded Erza was revealed still standing but panting heavily, her fire empress armour all but completely destroyed she look surprised and was panting heavily

 _Such heat, just how much raw power does he have?_ _To overwhelm my armour so completely…_

She didn't have much time to think as beads of purple energy flew towards her, she managed to deflect most of them with her sword but a couple grazed her legs causing them to shudder with pain and she had to take a moment to calm and steady herself. As soon as she stopped moving the ground beneath her feet seemed to melt and then harden, trapping her in the ground. She looked down and couldn't help but admire Oro's thinking, she was sure Natsu had more raw power, thinking about it actually caused her to shiver as it seemed endless, but it was Oro's mind that she admired the most. She had planned against them and on what she had known about them had come up with a strategy. He hadn't been able to do that, but on the fly had come up with a solution that both hindered her and allowed Natsu's power to drastically shift the battle in their favour, he truly understood how to work with his brother as a team. Still, she had planned for this, bracing herself she requipped into her purgatory armour the shift of size and power breaking the earth around her feet as she brought her maul up to block an attack from Natsu as they stopped in a stand still. Natsu pulled back, quickly thrusting his arm into the ground.

 **White Tremor**

Ground quaked and broke into cubes that floated into the air.

"All yours Oro"

Natsu whispered with a sly smile, Erza was shocked, she hadn't realised that Natsu also understood his brothers strengths and weaknesses, she couldn't help but inwardly smile at the realisation, these two were going to be great additions. But she wouldn't give up just yet.

"Thanks for the toys brother"

 **Time Dilation**

Twenty of the blocks began to swarm around Erza flying towards her with increasing speed, she managed to break a few of them and dodge the rest, but as soon as one was broken it was quickly reformed and resumed its attack. Instead of focusing on the blocks she ran at Oro as fast as she could, as she got within striking distance she brought her mace down with all her might, as it was about to connect she felt an incredible heat

 **Fire Dragon's Flaming Wind**

In an instant Natsu was stood in between them

"I thought I already told you, no one hurts my brother, I won't let that happen EVER AGAIN!"

 **Fire Dragon's Iron fist**

As he caught her mace with his left hand crackling blue energy cut across it and it shattered. His right fist, enveloped with red flames suffused with force energy, connected with her abdomen sending her flying. After the dust settled she rose to her feet, wearing a white blouse and skirt, cuts and burn marks developing across her body, she smiled at the two brothers and bowed.

"Congratulations, you have passed my trial, I wish you luck against Mira's" she turned to walk away "Not that I think you will need it" Natsu turned to look at the bleeding Oro

"You ok? She was tougher than I thought" Oro was staring at her retreating figure

"That brother, was amazing"

"Oh got a crush bro?"

"Shut up Natsu. (sigh) guess there is only one test left" As they began to look around for a sign of Mira and their final test they heard a loud explosion and a large column of fire erupting through the trees

"You think that's-" A high pitched scream cut Natsu off and they saw a small girl running for her life as a large monster came crashing after her

"No, screw the trial we can get back to it, we have to help her"

"Agreed"

 **Fire Dragon's Flaming Wind**

 **Infinity Dragon's Quantum Burst**

In an instant Natsu was stood between the girl and the monster, it was large, maybe 20 feet tall, twisted black horns crested a black haired and grotesque head. Each of its muscled arms long enough to drag along the ground. Oro appeared next to the girl and quickly scooped her up before sending small balls of purple energy at the creature's legs. It wouldn't be enough to immobilise the monster but it should give him enough time to get her out of there while Natsu took it on.

"Get her back to the guild Oro, I'll be able to deal with this guy"

"I'll be back soon Natsu, be careful"

Oro took off as fast as he could towards the guild hall. Natsu would be ok, he was sure of it, besides being this far away from the town meant he would be able to go all out, but Oro couldn't help but worry. Something had seemed slightly off with the whole situation.

"Ok ass hat, I don't know what you are doing here but I'm sending you back where you came from"

The monster roared and swung a massive fist at Natsu

 **Iron Will**

The fist collided with Natsu's defensive barrier and it howled in pain.

 _I've just got to wait a little longer, Oro should have her safely out of range soon._

Natsu continued to block and evade the monsters attacks until he felt like Oro would have gotten far enough away.

 **Fire Dragon's Scorching Ray**

The beam of fire crashed against the monsters left leg leaving the a disgusting smell of burnt hair and flesh, having got the feeling back in it's legs from Oro's attack the monster leapt at Natsu bringing both fist's downwards to make a hammer blow.

 **Iron Will**

Once again Natsu's spell absorbed the attack but it wasn't quite strong enough to stop it completely as a shock wave broke through and forced Natsu backwards into a tree.

"Ok fair play, I wasn't expecting that,"

 **Fire Dragon's Infernal Sabre's**

Natsu pulled his hands down in front of him in an x shape forming two sabre's made of flames that burnt with a blue light. He lept forward closing the Gap between them quickly and began leaving horrible cuts and burn marks across the beast's body forcing it backwards and all most defenceless, seizing this opportunity Natsu pressed his advantage

 **Fire Dragon's Infernal Wind**

Natsu's body became Blue fire, the air shimmered as raw power began to flare and burn the surrounding area. He moved with incredible speed, never once relenting with his sabre's striking blow after blow. He roared as both swords struck across the monster's chest sending it downwards into a large crater caused by the sheer power of the blow. He stopped to see if it would get back up while panting heavily, he had expended a lot of energy between this and Erza's trial. As he looked down at the monster he heard footsteps running his way

"STOP!" he turned to see Mira running towards him, he was about to speak when she flew right past him and down into the crater, he didn't fail to notice the tears in her eyes.

She began to cradle the monster's head while crying

"I'm so sorry Elfman, I didn't realise he would be this fast, I got her as soon as I could." Natsu looked down confused as the monster began to reform into one of the guild members he had seen before.

"Wha?"

"It was the third trial apparently" Oro had appeared next to him glowing in purple light.

"I'm not sure I follow, I thought Mira was supposed to be in charge of the trial"

"Apparently she underestimated how strong your desire to protect people was. She thought we would just focus on getting the girl away"

"But if you just leave a Monster running around it might hurt someone else!"

"I know, guess she figured we would go to get help with it"

"Yeah I guess we could have, but big brute monsters like that are my forte" Natsu grinned and walked down to Mira

"Hey Mira, I'm sorry, If I'd realised I wouldn't have attacked it so hard"

She shook her head

"No it's my fault, when you didn't immediately attack back I thought you were scared of him, so I let the fight go on too long, It was only once you powered up that I realised you had been stalling to give Oro enough time to get the girl to safety, then you moved way faster than I thought you could" She looked down at Elfman who was breathing heavily and was quite seriously injured.

"Well at least let me help with him" when she looked up confused Natsu enveloped his hands in a warm golden glow, this fire wasn't very hot, it radiated the same amount of heat as a small campfire and he bent down and let the flames cover Elfman's body. Mira gasped and was about to stop Natsu when she felt Oro's hand on her shoulder

"It's ok, these are the flames Igneel used to heal me when Natsu found me. Natsu spent years practicing it so that he could heal me if anything happened to me again" Mira tried to respond but was stunned as Elfman's breathing relaxed and the cuts and burns began to heal over. When he was finished Natsu easily picked up the larger man and began to walk up the crater.

"The wounds are healed but it will still take some time for his mind to heal, it still think's he is hurt, he should be fine in a couple of days though" Mira cried in relief and gave Natsu a small hug. It was the best she could do while he was carrying her brother.

They arrived back at the guild to see everyone looking at Elfman with a hint of worry,

"It's ok, Natsu healed him and he is going to be ok!" Mira explained to them and they let out a communal sigh of relief. While Mira ran Elfman to the infirmary to rest the two brothers were swamped his congratulations and hugs. After a while Makarov walked over to them with a large smile,

"Well done my boys, you have passed the trials. You were able to see through an enemy's tricks, able to quickly formulate a strategy in order to counter an enemy who had stacked the odds against you. But most importantly showed that you have the heart to look after those weaker than yourselves. You have earned the title of S-class"

"Thanks gramps but I still feel bad for what I did to Elfman I'm not sure I deserve it"

"Nonsense, my boy, that's our fault for underestimating your pure power, we also assumed it would be Oro who stayed to hold the Monster off with his defensive capabilities, we assumed to much"

"Well I would have stayed if the attacker had been an energy user, but against a brute type like that monster Natsu is always our best option, pound for pound he is the better fighter"

"Well I see that now. I think it's time to celebrate don't you?"

Everyone cheered and led the brothers back into the guild.

The next day the brothers sat at the bar quietly laughing at the members all nursing hangovers.

"Hey you think Happy and Lucky will be here soon?"

"They should be, hopefully they haven't spent all our money on fish"

"They better not have we are gonna need that to get a place sorted"

"Who are Happy and Lucky?" Erza had just walked in and taken a seat next to Oro.

"Oh right you guys haven't met them yet, When we decided to join the guild we sent them to get all of our money so we could buy a house. But they aren't back yet and they really should have been." Natsu explained

"Why the weird names?" Gray had also arrived and was stood in front of them one hand resting on his head, he had gone a little bit overboard last night. Oro laughed

"Oh they aren't human, they are…actually what are they Natsu?"

"Umm, cats?"

"You asked a couple of cats to get your money?!" Erza was shocked while Gray just winced at the volume of her voice

"Well they aren't regular cats, they are smart, they talk and can fly. We found them while we were looking for my dad."

"Well where were they getting your money from?"

"Oshibana" both boys replied nonchalantly.

"Well that isn't too far away I'm sure they will get here soon." The boys nodded in agreement

"By the way there is something I wanted to ask you both" Erza blushed slightly as she felt Oro's eyes on her

"I would like to take the two of you with Gray and myself on a job. With Natsu and myself up close and Oro and Gray from range we should be able to deal with any situation we find ourselves in so I was thinking of us all making a team, think of this as a test run"

"Yeah sounds good to me"

Just then Lucy walked into the guild hall and gave them a wave as she headed towards the job board.

"Oh we totally have to bring Lucy too" Oro raised an eyebrow at his brother while Erza and Gray looked confused

"Why she isn't s-class and I doubt she is close to it"

"Well that was rude Gray" Erza chastised her team mate "But I suspect he's right it would be too dangerous for her to come on jobs with us

"No way! Her magic is really cool, I want to see what other crazy stuff she can do with it." He wasn't sure why but Natsu felt the need to defend the blonde mage.

"You did say this was a trial run right? Why not give her a chance?" Oro added while inwardly sighing

 _You owe me for this brother, and you had better be right about her._

Natsu smiled at Oro

 _Thanks bro, I know you won't regret it_

There was a pregnant silence before Erza sighed, not because it would mean having to look after Lucy but because she had realised she wasn't going to be able to deny a request from Oro. It confused and frustrated her no end.

"Fine, but you two are responsible for her. Got it?" They nodded to Erza who stood up, "Be at the train station in an hour."

She headed out while Natsu ran to get Lucy. Gray looked at Oro with a questioning look

"Hey, I've never known Natsu to be wrong about someone before, he has a nose for this kind of thing." Oro tapped his nose as he finished his drink

"You better hope he's right this time, she could get hurt, or worse"

"She won't get hurt, Natsu takes his responsibility to protect people very seriously"

"I know, that's what I meant. Will he be able to deal with the guilt if it goes wrong?" With that Gray headed out of the door

 _He's not wrong Natsu, I'll help you but be careful_

Just over an hour later Natsu and Oro were lying prostrate looking up at the roof of the train carriage. Neither of them were good with transport, they had learnt to get better over the years but they still weren't exactly comfortable and laying down seemed to help. Gray, Erza and Lucy were watching them with some mix of amusement and worry. Erza had just finished explaining that they were looking into a dark guild who were rumoured to have been operating in the area. Lucy was both excited and worried, she was happy that Natsu had wanted her to come along but she wasn't really sure she was ready for something like this, despite his assurances. Erza and Gray didn't appear to be convinced either but at least his brother had offered her his support. Erza seeing Lucy watch the two brothers, with a small blush, felt a small pang in her chest

 _Which one are you looking at?_

Quickly dismissing the feeling as unusual and silly she looked at the boys as well. Both of them were trying to regulate their breathing with strained looks in their eyes. Each held their hands over their stomachs which was a shame as she was unable to see Oro's chiseled muscles. Unbeknownst to her Lucy was having a very similar thought about his brother.

"Say Natsu, what is it that makes you think Lucy is ready for this? No offence Lucy"

"Oh- er. None taken I guess Erza"

Natsu groaned slightly as he moved to sit up having to use the bench to lift himself up and he sat next to Lucy.

"Well...you know when you asked us what you guys smelt like right?" Both Gray and Erza nodded while a very confused and slightly scared look crossed Lucy's face

"Well Lucy smells like Vanilla, Starlight and strength" Everyone except Oro was surprised by this, most of all Lucy

"When the hell did you smell me!"

she had a bright blush across her face, that was easily one of the nicest things anyone had ever said about her, but she didn't want to admit the colour of her face was because she was embarrassed, choosing instead to hide it with mock anger. Erza Looked down at Oro who shrugged slightly and nodded in confirmation

"It's true"

"Of course it is why would I-" He was interrupted as the train hit a bump in the tracks causing him to groan and fall over. This wouldn't have been much of a problem if he hadn't fallen sideways with his head landing on Lucy's lap. Lucy panicked not knowing what to do,

 _What the hell! What should I do? I could push him off but I'd feel bad, I know he's feeling unwell and didn't do it on purpose. Maybe I can move to the other side and leave him on the bench? He's really warm and comfortable though… No. No Lucy don't think like that you'll just have to move_

Erza chuckled slightly at her discomfort, happy that Lucy was clearly looking at Natsu and not Oro. As Lucy was trying to find a way out of her situation the train pulled into the station. Using this as an excuse she lept to her feet toppling Natsu onto the floor on top of Oro and quickly led the way off the train her face a bright red.

"Hey Lucy wait! You don't know where we are going." Erza shouted and ran after her with Gray following closely behind her.

"Smooth brother real smooth" Oro groaned as he moved Natsu off, only to find the train moving again.

"Shit" He pulled himself up onto the bench and laid down with Natsu climbing up onto the other side.

"We'll have to get off at the next station"

"Gonna have to run back I don't think I can deal with another train ride right now" Natsu sniffed the air

"You smell that right? I can't tell what's worse the train or that brutal stench"

* * *

So ends chapter 4.

Truth be told I'm not that happy with the way this chapter turned out but i couldn't stomach yet another rewriting, i guess I'll just have to edit it in the future after I've had time to think about how to improve it. That being said I hope you enjoyed it. Chapter 5 will probably be the entire lullaby situation finished, I have an original adventure to follow that I'm pretty excited to get too as it should set up the over arching story I've got in mind.

Once again please reveiw

Thanks


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